ContentsChanges from 4.0 to 6.0
Familiar with AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0?
Here’s what you need to know to get right up to speed with v6.0!
AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0 now uses a new free-form scripting language. This allows you to type in your actions as well as create your own functions. Although similar to the v4.0 actions, they are not the same. If you convert a project, the actions will not be converted. Please see the conversion topic in the Help file for more details. You can read more about the new scripting language in the Scripting Guide.
There have been several changes to AutoPlay Media Studio’s objects. The biggest change is the addition of the button object. The button object allows you to use single-file .btn files to create multi-state buttons. The button object is roughly equivalent to the v4.0 image object. AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0’s image object is now used simply for single images. Both the image and button objects support 32-bit images that contain alpha channel information. This allows you to create smooth transparent and shadowed images.
AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0’s text box object has now been replaced with the paragraph object. The paragraph object does not allow the selection of text but does allow custom “skinned” scrollbars as well as transparent backgrounds. If you want to simulate an AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0’s text box object, just use AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0’s input object.
The Media Player object has been replaced with the video object. AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0’s video object does not rely on the Media Player ActiveX control but retains most of the same functionality and video format compatibility. The video object is built directly on top of low-level DirectX interfaces, which maximizes system compatibility. As an added bonus, the video object supports custom “skins” for the transport controls. AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0’s AVI object has been done away with since it is now quite obsolete. The video object can do everything that the AVI object could and much more.
The hotspot object no longer supports swapping of page background image areas. Multiple page background images have also been removed. This type of functionality can be better achieved with the button object.
There has been a change in the way objects are created at runtime. In version 4.0, objects were created internally whenever they were shown (made visible), and destroyed whenever they were hidden. This meant objects could only respond to actions if they were visible. In version 6.0, objects are always created when the page is created, even if the objects are hidden. The objects aren't destroyed until the page is closed. Since objects are no longer created and destroyed as they're hidden and shown, they can now respond to actions even while they're hidden. They will also continue to trigger their events.
Lastly, new objects have been added, such as the combobox object, the progress object and the tree object, to make your applications more powerful than ever!
AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0 has a brand new resource file management system in place. Now any time you add a file to your project, a copy of the file is made and used in the project. This ensures that you never lose resource files (images, videos, documents, etc.) that are used by your project. This feature also dramatically speeds up project previewing and the build process in general.
AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0’s single-sound player has been replaced with an all-new state of the art audio system. The new audio system allows real-time mixing of multiple audio channels—each of which can be controlled independently. With the addition of new audio actions, you can do everything that the v4.0 player did and much, much more. As well, the new background music playlist makes it incredibly simple to add project-wide background music that will mix automatically with foreground audio.
AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0’s global lists feature has been done away with. The new scripting language allows the use of much more flexible and useful “tables” (arrays). It is a much better way to manage data lists.
AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0 has now added the ability to extend the product through the use of plugins. Object plugins allow the seamless addition of new objects to the product. Action plugins allow the actions to be extended to do most anything. Plugins will become available by both Indigo Rose and third party developers.
AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0 now allows you to specify a movie that will be displayed when your application starts up. You can use either videos or flash files as your startup movie.
Instead of just allowing you to automatically detect Flash, Media Player and Internet Explorer like AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0 did, AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0 takes technology detection to a whole new level. You can now choose from many different types of technologies to detect. The best part is that new detection scripts can be dynamically added to the product.
AutoPlay Media Studio 6.0’s design environment has been dramatically improved with a panel system that allows docking panels to be tabbed, pinned and hidden. You can even configure your own custom workspace layouts. There are too many new design environment features to mention here. Please read the User’s Guide to discover them all.